International Journal of Humanities and Social Science
Vol. 2 No. 5; March 2012
What, How, and Why: The Geertzian Definition of Religion and Neurotheological
Project on Meta and Megatheology.
Witold P. Wolny
Department of History and Philosophy
The University of Virginia’s College at Wise
1 College Ave, Darden Hall 105
Wise, VA, 24293, USA
Abstract
The discussion about the nature and essence of religion has been recently revitalized. Due to the magnitude and
extent of this return, Geertz called it a “seismic event”. However, in spite of an impressive development in
research on religion, there is still no common agreement about its definition and content. Common definitions are
mainly responding to the questions “what” religion is, “why” it is there and “how” it works rather on the
phenomenological level. The Humans Sciences (including theology) – have always jealously looked at the natural
sciences and their methods in order to clarify the blurriness of concepts and simplify the unnecessary
sophistication of theoretical discourse. Recent studies on the neurology of religious beliefs, together with
Geertzian’ definition and analysis of religion bring new inspirations for what has been labeled as Mega and
Metatheology.
The discussion about the nature and essence of religion has been recently revitalized, after its spectacular
comeback in the socio-political arena of contemporary world. Due to the magnitude and extent of this return,
Geertz called it a “seismic event”. Once again the essential role that our beliefs play in the formation of our
individual world-views has been confirmed. On the academic side, this implies two things: the end of the
Secularization Theory, and the necessity of a new theory of religion or at least a new global approach to the
religious phenomenon. Of course the starting point for this enterprise would be defining this term. However,
during the twentieth century, in spite of an impressive development in anthropological research on religion, there
was no common agreement about its definition and content. Two main currents or tendencies became visible. For
many scholars, the most complete and influential definition is the one by Clifford Geertz, while others prefer to
follow definitions rooted in Durkheim’s dichotomy between the sacred and the profane. If Durkheim’s approach
is both inspirational and useful, the definition of Clifford Geertz is the most quoted and one of the most
comprehensive. In his definition, Geertz refers to a religion as “system of symbols”.
These systems are cultural models and make up an “intrinsic source of information” for the formation of social
and psychological processes. The nucleus of the Geertzian definition resides in its third proposition. As a system
of symbols, religion establishes moods and motivations by formulating conceptions of a general order of
existence. This is precisely what distinguishes a mood of wonder when you see the Grand Canyon from a feeling
of religious awe in the face of a vitality that penetrates everything in a mysterious way, as in a case of mana or
any other experience of the Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans. In a similar manner there is a difference between
a motivation to live an ascetic life for religious reasons, and a motivation to live and ascetic life in order to lose a
few pounds. Religious symbols generate conceptions of a general order of existence, but not in a systematic
manner, or not explicitly. In other words, it can be an intuition. Certain religious feelings or ritualistic behaviors
that are present in a passion, entertainment, sports, fashion or human relationship (love, of course) – could be seen
sometimes as substitutes for religion, but they are only imitations of religion, because they do not symbolize
transcendental truths, nor do they formulate conceptions of a general order of reality, of nature and the universe.
Even if quite often these religious affirmations are obscure, naïve or simply wrong, they still are bearers of
worldviews and ultimate truths.
It’s here where Geertz sees the difference between his position and Taylor’s definition, which identifies religious
phenomenon by belief in spirits. The basic difference between Geertzian approach and many others that are based
on the mantra “a belief in something spiritual” - is that Geertz’ spotlight is not on beliefs but on functionality, in a
capacity of formulating conceptions, and this is not a requirement exclusively for religion, but for human identity
as well.
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Without this capacity or possibility to formulate conceptions of a general order of existence the human being
wouldn’t be even a gifted simian, but a monster without meaning and direction, without self-control over
emotions, he/she only would guided by chaotic impulses. We could describe this idea of Geertz by saying that “in
the beginning there was a conception” – this would probably be the famous “point of humanization” of Teilhard
de Chardin, the moment when the human being was born, emerging from chaos- in the course of evolutionary
biological fine-tuning,- to self-creation and a symbolic re-creation of the surrounding world. This creation of the
human being, because it is conceptual, is also dynamic and sustained by a symbolic system. It is a virtual reality
(in the sense described by Zizek) that is imposed or projected by man onto reality, or kind of a “contact lens” by
means of the man perceives all the reality. The fragility of this “subjectivity that objectifies” depends on three
factors, “three points where chaos – a tumult of events which lack not just interpretations but interpretability –
threatens to break in upon man: at the limits of his analytical capacities, at the limits of his powers of endurance,
and at the limits of his moral insight.” (Geertz, 1973) Intellectual discomfort, physical and psychological
suffering, ethical problems that seems impossible to amend – if they are intense enough and prolonged, question
the purpose and meaning of life and the possibility of its comprehension.
These are, of course, questions that concern directly every religion, and if a religion is incapable of putting in
order that what produces this conceptual or emotional chaos, than probably will be disregarded or replaced.
However, not only religious persons need to protect their world view from these three dangers. An intellectual
discomfort doesn’t have to be the result of conflict between science and religion nor the product of intellectual
tension within religious dogma or whole system. As an example, Geertz talks about a deep intellectual
dissatisfaction that Bertrand Russell had with some mathematical axioms while the question of God did not
produce in him any anxiety. Einstein was profoundly disappointed with some results of quantum mechanics,
because he could not to believe that God plays dice with the universe. There are many other examples within and
outside religion, - it seems like it’s impossible for the human being to leave facts without interpreting them,
without finding a feasible explanation; even if this explanation sometimes is very odd. This is preferable to chaos
leading to intellectual and emotional discomfort. Another risk of disintegration into chaos may be the result of
suffering.
Geertz follows here Bronislaw Malinowski who pointed out that religion helps to overcome situations of
emotional stress by opening up escapes through rites and beliefs. In addition, in religions the predicament of Job
in many ways is reproduced: the contrast between moral condition and reality, between what “is” with what
“should be”. The existence of evil, unjust and absurd suffering, and eventually death, - all these problems have to
be answered, even if the answer doesn’t erase the drama generated by “what is” instead of “what should be”.
Hence, it looks like whenever there is a religion, there is also a symbolic system that connects factual reality with
transcendental milieu. But not just that – religious conceptions have to be clothed in an aura of factuality, in other
words, the human being for some reason has to believe that these conceptions are real. The main problem here is
how is it possible, “how is it that the religious man moves from a troubled perception of experienced disorder to a
more or less settled conviction of fundamental order?” (Geertz, 1973, 109). A common response based on a
psychological analysis is that these religion constructions are responses to inner psychological needs (like anxiety
induced by suffering or different existential fears). However Geertz sustains that if everyday experiences are a
source for religious beliefs, everybody would be agnostic.
On the contrary, the consequence of a prior acceptance of supernatural authority transforms experience and
harmonizes it with the global religious world view. It is true that sometimes an experience of suffering or an awe
or moral paradoxes can lead to spiritual sentiments; however they cannot constitute a solid base for beliefs. A
myth or a revelation or a charismatic preacher has to be accepted as authoritative. Consequently, a religious
symbolic system could be integrated into a world view transforming it entirely so that world view would obtain a
new religious perspective, a new mood of perception, apprehension and understanding. It is not a detachment
from reality in the refuge of a virtual sacred world – it’s rather an experience of finding a deeper reason, meaning,
sense and a superior order that makes reality even “more real”. The core of the religious perspective is precisely
the conviction of the “really real” which intensifies and transforms everyday life by inserting it into a new
symbolic system with its conceptions and rituals. Here is the aura of factuality of the Geertzian definition:
religious perspective makes reality deeper and clothes it in new conceptions and meanings. It’s not just about
adding to the world “here” another one “out there”, it’s about discovering “the other” world as “present here”.
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International Journal of Humanities and Social Science
Vol. 2 No. 5; March 2012
The purpose of a symbolic system in the Geertzian definition is not just to create moods and motivations but to
make them seem uniquely realistic. This component of the definition is – according the Geertz - particularly
important, and nobody has exposed it with precision. These religious moods and motivations do not have to be
always detectable. No one, not even a saint or mystics, can live in the world of religious symbols all the time.
There is always a world of common sense, of everyday practical, physiological, material and immediate things.
One can be insensitive to aesthetics, oblivious or indifferent to religious feelings and ideas, or inept in science, but
one cannot totally disregard common sense and survive. For a religious person, the tangible world of common
sense becomes impregnated, colored by the religious world view which gives a distinctive style to society, to the
individual and social life. For that reason there are two simultaneous spheres: the one of the religious perspective
and the other of common sense.
The movement that oscillates between these two perspectives is “one of the most obvious empirical evidences on
the social scene, though, again, one of the most neglected by social anthropologists, virtually all of whom have
seen it happen countless times” (Geertz, 1973, 119) According to the author, anthropologists usually describe
religion as something homogeneous and characteristic of each individual, similar to his/her kinship position,
occupational role or place of residence. However religion does something peculiar: by means of rites it can
transport the person into another mode of existence, into the “sacred ambience” and, afterwards, this experience
remains only as a pale reflection in midst of everyday life. This is the originality of the Geertzian analysis:
awareness of the fact that human beings do not melt or fuse perspectives of the religious and the “ordinary” world
but rather oscillate between them, jump from one to the other. It is similar to the moment of falling asleep or to
the moment when the theater curtain goes up and marks the transition to the stage-world, or when we laugh after
hearing a good joke that transforms the real world into the “other” where silly or unreal things happen. Geertz
insists on the importance of introducing this idea into studies on religion because: “one of the main
methodological problems in writing about religion scientifically is to put aside at once the tone of the village
atheist and that of the village preacher, as well as their more sophisticated equivalents, so that the social and
psychological implications of particular religious beliefs can emerge in a clear and neutral light.” (Geertz 1973,
123). This suggestion of taking a different position or perspective when science study religion is not new: William
James, Rudolf Otto, and many phenomenologists advocated something similar.
However this claim for a “clear and neutral light” has recently received a new and surprising ally - unforeseen at
the time Geertz wrote his masterpiece “Religion as a Cultural System” - new theories incorporating biological
models and data provided by the experimental sciences, in particular Neurology and Genetics. This biologicalcognitive perspective has re-energized naturalistic theories of religion, although this time without declaring a
holistic explanation of the religious phenomenon along the lines of their XIX century predecessors. The problem
with the Geertzian definition – and any other definition elaborated from the human sciences – is that it is based on
empirical methodology (observation-deduction) rather than positivistic methodology used by the natural sciences.
Consequently, these definitions are mainly responding to the questions “what” religion is, “why” it is there and
“how” it works rather than on the phenomenological level. In our case,
“what” – system of symbols
“why” - to establish a powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in human beings
“how” - by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an
aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. However, this is not the kind of
language that the “hard sciences” speak. The scientific answers would respond in the following way:“what” function of human brain, related to the consciousness “why” – to provide an evolutionary advantage “how” - by
human species pre-disposed genetically towards religious behaviors, by using hyper-excited, aroused or
dysfunctional states of the human brain that provide religious-like experiences and ideas. The Humans Sciences
(including theology) – have always jealously looked at the natural sciences and their methods in order to clarify
the blurriness of concepts and simplify the unnecessary sophistication of theoretical discourse. Another important
temptation has been to bring on the Holy Grail of a holistic and definitive grand theory of religion. Nevertheless
whenever the Humans Sciences succeeded in introducing the empirical-experimental approach into religion
studies, they were accused of falling into scientific reductionism. However today, from both sites: from religion
and science, are being raised voices in favor of – what Nancey Murphy (winner the American Academy of
Religion award for her book Theology in the Age of Science) has called non-reductive physicalism.
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From the scientists side there is also a new mise-en-scène - they do not necessarily disregard religious experiences
and explanations as not relevant or complementary to the “hard’ science. Recent studies on the neurology of
religious beliefs discovered what parts of the human brain are involved in religious activities and beliefs. The
question is how the human brain generates all the “classical” elements of religious phenomenon, and why in this
way and in no other, namely why human beings are religious. Newberg and d’Aquili point out that all religious
essentials, like rites or myths have neurological bases, and they describe the neurological mechanisms behind
religious experiences. One of the main functions of the human brain is selecting and ordering all data that comes
through different sensorial and inner experiences. The main enemy is chaos, disorder or the incapacity to classify
the incoming data as good or bad for the system, useful, dangerous, or threatening to its integrity. There is a basic
vital importance in such a capacity to build up one coherent world view – this simply makes predictions possible
and facilitates a better adaptation to the environment. Hence, religion, as any cultural symbolic system provides a
framework for the ultimate order of the human universe. However, what makes religion different from a cultural
system is the fact that its convictions are based on a special kind of brain experience that the human brain
classifies as radically real. This experience cannot be acquired via ordinary channels by which such an experience
of the “real reality” is usually acquired, - namely through sensorial data or logical deductions.
Newberg and d’Aquili called this occurrence the experience of the Absolute Unitary Being (AUB). Scientific
experiments show that such an experience corresponds to a discrete activity of the brain that can be mapped using
a sophisticated method of brain scanning. This experience of AUB happens for example during deep meditation.
Sara Lazar’s study shows that there is even a physiological base for such an experience; her research team
discovered an association between meditation and increased cortical thickness. (Lazar, 2005). Andrew Newberg
says: “Our minds are drawn by the intuition of this deeper reality, this utter sense of oneness, where suffering
vanishes and all desires are at peace. As long as our brain are arranged the way they are, as long as our minds are
capable of sensing this deeper reality, spirituality will continue to shape the human experience, and God, however
we define that majestic, mysterious concept, will not go away.” ( Newberg and d’Aquili, 2001) This is entirely a
scientific hypothesis, quite unexpected after more than a century of the positivist paradigm.
One of the consequences of bringing religion into the scientific lab is that science has to seriously take into
account religious phenomenon in its complexity and start making journeys inside the religious world. Newberg
and d’Aquili put forward the idea of establishing a new kind of religious analysis, called Metatheology. This
constitutes a symbolic turning point for the traditionally uneasy, yet at times antagonistic, religion-science
relationship. D’Aquili and Newberg go even farther and suggest the creation of a new Megatheology as the direct
beneficiary of contemporary neurology. Metatheology contains general principles that describe a theological
system and the norms of its creation. Metatheology explains the structure of religious phenomenon using a
neurological analysis of brain architecture and its “cognitive operators”. These cognitive operators make possible
the creation of all basic elements of religion, namely myths, theologies and rites. Metatheology explains the
structure of religion; megatheology is another derivation of Neurology which aspire to determine the contents that
can (or should) be incorporated by all world religions. Moreover: metatheology could suggest a new specific
theology for a future universal religion. Its universality is not biased historically or culturally. The novelty is that
science not only tolerates religion but claims to be its main inspiration. The essential argument for such a claim is
the discovery of singular states of the human brain that occur during certain religious practices (rites, ascetic
practices or mystic experiences)
These conditions of the brain have a common denominator: they are hyperlucid unitary states.
(D’Aquili&Newberg, 1999). These states are common to all religious experiences and in the past were described
with complex, symbolic apparatus proper to given historical and cultural 8 circumstances. Neurology could
examine, using advanced methods of brain scanning, what happens during these hyperlucid states of
consciousness, what is their physiology, where the neural flux transits and how the anatomical mechanism of our
brain function. These brain scanners closed the debate about authenticity of these experiences. The extreme
modality of the hyperlucid unitary states is the experience of the Absolute Unitary Being (AUB). What is
particularly interesting is that our brain reacts to this experience as something entirely and radically real, at least
as real as the tree we see in front of us, the music we hear or the evidence of the existence we experience.
Nevertheless even if the experience of AUB is declared by our brain as radically real, the question of objectivity
still remains because these experiences are also radically subjective.
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International Journal of Humanities and Social Science
Vol. 2 No. 5; March 2012
In the words of Scott Atran, the problem may be summarized in the question: “Why are Mickey Mouse and Marx
different from God?” (Atran 2002) For d’Aquili y Newberg, the singularity of religious experience has to do with
its phenomenological peculiarity, its absolute conviction and its re-discovery of the real as a consequence of this
experience. The question is why the human brain is totally certain about the reality of the AUB, if this certainty
does not relate to something real. The radicalism of religious experience of AUB has nothing to do with faith in
Mickey Mouse or in Marx, because the real is not just “projected into” the AUB but this experience transforms
the way of perceiving reality.
For D’Aquili and Newberg the idea of subjective and objective is being originated in the experience of the “pure
consciousness of the real”, namely actual reality emerges from this experience. In this sense, the experience of
AUB is more radical than anything else, because it is a simple consciousness without forms. Its effect could be the
configuration of a religion, when this experience becomes formalized and expressed in a figure of god. There is
also the possibility of a neutral configuration, when there is no god or its equivalent like in classic Buddhism.
Megatheology is based on this “pure and simple” awareness of AUB, one that could be called “the previous
nature of God” and represents the total and infinite conscious potentiality, the Mysterium Tremendum et
Fascinans in its deepest meaning.
Critics of neurotheology go in two directions: one is about its general character and another is about one particular
aspect. A representative of the first group is Scott Atran who says that neurotheology does not take into account
the progress of Cognitive Psychology and Anthropology and criticizes the usage of the theory of cognitive
operators without sufficient support of data. (Atran, 2002, 186)
John A. Teske argues that the coherent picture of human spirituality apart from neurology should contain different
levels including biology, history, psychology and narrative mythology.
Teske argues that the human spirit is generated, inserted or supervenient to nature.
In this sense, neurology is necessary but insufficient to understand spirituality. (Teske 2006) In the other group
are those who point out and criticize one particular aspect. Kart E. Peters notices that to the three goals of the
Metatheology - “how and why” myths, rites and theology - should be added one more, namely morality. Peters
points out the absence of moral duty as an essential aspect of religious experience. He also suggests that the
alternative to Megatheology could be evolutionary theology as a combination of Biological and Cultural
Anthropology.There are also those who look for genuine religious experiences as a biopsychological framework
for neurotheology and evolutionary theology. For Michael Winkelman all the elements of neurotheology are
present in shamanism. (Winkelman 2004). Finally there are those who criticize neurology for its marriage with
theology and instead they prefer to remain in a position of empirical reductionism.
Maximo Pilgliucci, uses Ockham’s razor as an argument against neurotheology. He also criticizes neurotheology
for not being a theology since it says nothing about the nature of God that should be the main and constitutive
objective of every theology.(Pilgliucci, 2002).
I am not going to discuss these critics, since this is not relevant for the purpose of this presentation.
What is, in my opinion, the “black side of the moon” in Newberg and d’Aquili’s project, although exceptionally
interesting and inspirational – is lack of phenomenological explanation about the essence and characteristics of
religious experience; in other words – what is exactly that what science mean by “religious experiences”, what
kind of abstract realities and structures are hidden behind this umbrella term.
Geertz and his elegant conceptual apparatus could provide such a necessary disclosure.
Geertzian definition and analysis of religion is an excellent base and useful philosophical starting point for more
developments and discussions on Meta/Mega-theology. The divorce between science and religion throughout the
history has been caused by what causes any divorce: the lack of mutual understanding that implies empathy, and
as a consequence, has caused a progressive impossibility for an authentic dialogue.
But there is a chance they can reconcile for mutual benefit. Religion and the Natural sciences may finally reach
the point where one won’t be accused of being naive and irrational, and the other of being insensitive to more
subtle yet still fundamental realities and phenomena. Friedrich Nietzsche defined the marriage as the will of two
to create the one who is more than those who created it. This is my best wish for the future of Mega and
Metatheology.
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References
1. Atran, S., (2002), In Gods We Trust. The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. Oxford University Press.
2. Newberg, A., D’Aquili, E. (1999), The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience, Fortress
Press, Minneapolis.
3. Newberg, A., D’Aquili, E. (2001), Why God Won’t Go Away. Brain Science and the Biology of Belief,
Ballantine Books, New York.
4. Geertz, C. (2000), Available Light. Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics, Princeton, Princeton
University Press.
5. Geertz, C. (1973), The Interpretation of Cultures, New York, Basic Books.
6. Lazar S. W. and others (2000), Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and
meditation, NeuroReport, Vol. II No 7, 15 May 2000.
7. Malinowski, B. (1960), The Scientific Theory of Culture, New York, Oxford University Press, 1960.
8. Murphy, N. (1993), Theology in the Age of Science, Cornell University Press.
9. Pigliucci, M. (2002), Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science. Sinauer.
10. Otto, R. (2006). The Idea of the Holy, Oxford University Press, 1923.
11. Teske, J.A. (2006). Neuromythology: Brains and Stories. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 41
(March): 173-200.
12. James, W. (1929), The Varieties of Religious Experience, New York, Random House, 1929.
13. Zizek, S. (2007), The Reality of the Virtual, DVD, Olive Films.
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